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Presented by Lauren Stibgen
Are you making work an idol? Idol’s surrounding work can impact the integrity of your faith. What are some of the idols that can crop up?
Remember, an idol is a person or thing other than God that you worship more than God. The most common way work can become an idol is the amount of time you spend working and how it keeps you away from your time with God. Perhaps it is constantly missing small group Bible study because you are working late or not taking quiet time in the morning because you are rushing off to work. Have you worked on Sundays and stayed away from worshiping at church?
What about people we encounter during the course of our business? A boss, an expert, maybe even a colleague. The boss asks a lot of you, and it is taking you away from God. Or you are hanging on the achievements of an expert in your field or a colleague’s great success that leads you to talk more about them than God.
Does the killer of comparison have you working extra hard on your work or your overall image at work? How much energy do you give this?
As followers of Jesus, we are called to worship the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to give God glory, not man. In the Bible, we can turn to Daniel’s example of the faithful integrity. Daniel worked for King Nebuchadnezzar. He was one of a handful of the Israelites who was deemed smart enough to serve. We notice first Daniel did not accept the name given to him by the king.
He also did not eat of the foods the king gave and only ate fruits and vegetables since the meat was unclean by Old Testament standards. Most notably, Daniel did not bow down to the statue erected of the king. He held the integrity of his faith and did not worship the idols of the king. You can read more about this in Daniel 2-6.
In the workplace we need to be mindful of the idols that may creep in to challenge the integrity of our faith. Again, as professional followers of Jesus, we are sometimes the first introduction to Jesus someone will have! How are you holding this integrity at work?